The Carbon advocate. [volume] (Lehighton, Pa.) 1872-1924, 1887-12-10
BrOadbrim'S New york Letter.


At this session of the year it is positive relief
to escape from the police courts-frOm the scan
dals of private life-from the turmoil of politics
from the failures, the bank robberies, and all
of the evils of our every day life, into the flower
shows and the art galleries, with which, thank
Providence, we are now abundantly supplied. A
new blessing, and glory to fora, is the japanese
chrysanthemum, about the beauty of which too
much can hardly be said. Last year we had a
magnificent collection of them: but In several of
the exhibitions this year have seen new var-
cites that never observed before. Many of
these are magnificent, and it has gradually work
ed its way to the 'front.' till the stately rose pales
in its glorious presence. In all Of our private
greenhouses they hold an honored place. and on
the flowar stands its cost is equal to that of the
finest rosW.
In art we are superabundantly blest. Mum
kacsy's "Christ on Calvary is still attracting
marked attention, though 1t has sot created the
furore of his. Christ before Plate" Whatever
Mr.. seidlemayer, the owner, may say, it does not
seem possible that Monkacsy could ever have
esteemed "Christ on Calvary" as his greatest
work. 1t looks to me as if the great Hungarian
was suffering from the same disease that cursed
Turner's latter days and clouded his great fame
-avarce. Seventy thousand dollars is a great
price to pay for picture; but that is the price
which it is reported Wannemaker paid forChrist
before PLATE. Scarcely year has passed, and
here is Mr. Seidlemayer again with what he calls
the companion piece which he would willingly
part with for seventy thousand more. Such enor-
nous prices have only been possible within the
past few years, and in our age of colossal for
tunes.
Speaking Of art puts me in mind OF the row
that is going on between Anthony Comstock and
Knoedler the art collector and connoiseur Min
gled with the beautiful, the true and the good i'm
art isa vast deal of humbug, cant and vice There
are certain appetites 50 yitiated and defed that
their yenison must be tainted to crafty their de-
graded palate-their game must hang in the sun
till the flies gather around it. before the gamey
flavor is all brought out; so In art, when any
prurient ndency is brought forth to shock the
better sense of the community, you are met on
the threshold with the stunning announcement
that that Identical picture was exhibited in the
Paris Salon.
Now am not at all thm-skiuned. I have drift
ell about this world TOO much to be easily uffect-
Ell by trllles. / have stood without the faintest
sign of a blush upon my modest cheek in the jar
din Alabille, when the can-can was danced in Its
glory, and have seen the hats of the inner ring
OF lockers on ly over the heads of the spectators
while the NIGH hial.ers turned hand springs and
g0mersGujs wonderful 30 behold, and never
wuked I hage seon-the iula-hula danced be-
fore the King of the Cannibal Islands, and while
i confess &c made me feel a little queer stood 1t
and took my pea soup like q little man. I have
seen the finest art collections in the world, and
ann not the dud of man to strain at a camel and
swallow q guat. mention these things to show
that my nerves are in proper order and not
moved uE ,liGe5 But selecting one particular
a.lHu-ta tae salon ol ls7s- as a sample; as / en-
tered wiha modest young New England girl
leaning ON my arm and got O. glimpse of the FIRST
picture fat stood near tnc door, ! was In hopes
that he i0'r would open aud swallow me, or
t'at tAe ceiling would i.ii down and cover me i'm
i.a ruins. From my soul pltied the poor girl,
and quickly led her out by the nearest door,
ieeii9s as thoroughly diSgraced and ashamed as
it had been in a brothel. 1t was not that the
pictures were nude which, heaven knows, was
quite bad enough; but the nudes were not. and
never could have been, except in infancy or
childhood, decent members of society. The at
titudcs, the looks, the whole character of the
painting was suggestive of evil and ndeccncy
without one ennobling or eleyuting thought con
neeted with it, If you want TO know exactly
what / mean, step into the Holman and see Ned
Stokes Beaugerou entitled, "The Nymphs and
the Satyr" They are nymphs, It's true, very
beautiful, but evidently from their actions what
the French call nymphs du pave, while the satyr,
unless his looks belle him, is a very bad charac-
ter in very bad way; yet 1t was exactly this
style of painting that gave BeaugerOhisu repu-
tation. That he painted other pictures is true
beautiful and good, worthy of immortality; but
his noble pencil was prstituted to the baseSt and
unworlhiest uses, and he win live in aftertime
as the great artistic panderer of the nineteenth
century.
Mi Knoedler claims that the photos that he
sold were reproduction of The Salon oi Paris
What Of il? We are not oyer-nice and particu-
lar in New York, and London can stand much
more than we can; yet neither London or New
York has ever attempted 10 reproduce anything
like the French Salon. We dOnt want it; and
If we do, we can 90 to Paris, and for few francs
get the genuine article IN an It's native impurlty.
Three of the sights of Paris are the new Ma
bile, the Chateau Rouge and the Closein de Lii
| lias in the Latin Quarter. They do well for the
atmosphere Of PARIS; they grow and flourish
there, they are native 20 the soil and are mdi-
geuous nowhere else, The student OF the Latin
Quarter stands alone without type elsewhere
so also does his next friend who shall be maine
less; but we don't want the same state ofaiiairs
in New York or Boston, or Philadelphia, or even
In Chicago-if il ever has a college worthy of the
West Anthony Comstock Was right. Mr. Knoed-
Ter is judge of art-he knows hawk from
hand-saw: and he knew as Well as any man in
New York that the goods he was selling were
contraband. They were not placed in the public
windows Of Mr. Knoedler's establishment, but
were kept In private drawer for special Gus
toners who wanted something spicy and were
prepared to pay fort, Histranseripts are found
in the splendidly furnished fats OF stockholders
from Wall street, who have no wives Of their own